Abortion funds for prisoners, not for soldiers

Jessica Kenyon joined the U.S. Army in 2005. While stationed in Korea, she was raped by a fellow soldier.

She found out she was pregnant from the assault when her commanding officer called her into his office to accuse her of adultery — her Army doctor had reported her condition to her CO, but not to her.

The adultery charge didn't stick because Kenyon was divorced. But the outrages didn't end there.

Kenyon wanted an abortion. She didn't want to carry and bear a child of rape.

But while Congress allows federal funds for abortion in cases of rape if you're a federal worker, on Medicaid or even in federal prison, Congress forbids such coverage for military women.

Yes, even in cases of rape.

"Denying abortion coverage to rape survivors is a serious injustice to those who are honorably serving our country," Kenyon wrote last week on the ACLU's Blog of Rights website.

Congress denied it back in 1981. They denied it again last week.

Or rather, the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee refused even to discuss the matter. Or tell the public why they killed it.

"We're abandoning these women who are sacrificing their lives for our country," said Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, who tried to introduce the measure. "If anything, we should go out of our way to accommodate them."

The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would have expanded military health coverage to include abortion services for servicewomen who survived rape or incest.

Not on demand. Not on a whim.

It's coverage that already exists for all other women in the federal system.

But a handful of House ideologues bent on ultraconservative social engineering — or appealing to a narrow and rigid base — are withholding that right from women in service to this country. And shutting down any discussion whatsoever.

In Hampton Roads, especially, this should spark outrage. Between the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard, nearly a quarter of the country's active-duty military personnel are stationed here. We have a bigger stake in this injustice than most areas.

And it is an injustice.

As Kenyon wrote: "We are defending a Constitution that doesn't apply to us. This was a phrase I heard often after I joined the U.S. Army…. At the time, I didn't realize just how true that would be."

She also didn't realize that, just by joining the military, her odds of being raped immediately doubled.

Sexual assault against active-duty servicewomen by their own comrades has long been called "epidemic."

In February, 17 former servicewomen and men filed suit against the Pentagon, claiming their reports of sexual assault by their own comrades were ignored or, worse, used against them to damage or destroy their careers. That in fact, military culture fosters and ignores sexual violence, even against its own.

In March, the U.S. Department of Defense released its Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military, 622 pages that basically say things haven't improved much over the years.

In fiscal year 2010, there were 3,158 reports of military sexual assault. But that number represents only a small fraction — just 13.5 percent, the DoD estimates — of actual assaults.

The actual number, then, is more than 19,000.

When any of those rapes results in a pregnancy, the burden is on the victim to raise funds privately for an abortion. For a typical low-income service member, that's a real financial burden — on top of physical and emotional trauma.

Anti-abortion activists are pleased.

"There exists no lack of access or demonstrated need to force the American taxpayer to pay for women's abortions whose pregnancies are the result of rape or incest," said Kellie Fiedorek, staff counsel for Americans United for Life.

"If a woman is a victim of the tragic crime of rape … lawmakers' priority should be to ensure the perpetrator is not free to assault her or other women again in the future."

As for the victim, then, good luck, honey — if it's a girl, name her Kellie.

The DoD's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office says its new prevention campaign is called "Hurts One. Affects All."

It should come with an asterisk: "But if you get pregnant, you're on your own."